MTH PRR Aerotrain set

Here you go, a proper 10 car consist.  This was a test of pulling power after tweaking the locomotive to be able to handle the grade with ten cars.

Thank you John. That sure is sharp! Several years ago you posted that you had one. You didn’t mention that you had collected the extra cars too. I was hoping you would share a video of yours when I posted this. Thank you!!! 😎

Here’s one I made with a 3.0 mega pixel camera over 14 years ago...so the quality sucks !

@WRW posted:

Thank you John. That sure is sharp! Several years ago you posted that you had one. You didn’t mention that you had collected the extra cars too. I was hoping you would share a video of yours when I posted this. Thank you!!! 😎

I wanted enough cars to make the prototypical 10-car consist that was the original concept for the Aerotrain.  I also have another engine that I'm going to convert to TMCC so I have one for TMCC and one for DCS.  Our club modular layout has more trouble with DCS, so I'd like a TMCC engine to run when I take them to modular shows.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I wanted enough cars to make the prototypical 10-car consist that was the original concept for the Aerotrain....

For some reason, when the Pennsy put them in service in February 1956, there were only nine cars.   I have the original brochures and the timetables, as well as photos on line, to prove that.  Does anyone know the reason why they dropped the extra car?

My guess would be the anemic pulling power of the engine with 1200HP.  They needed helpers for any grades of consequence, so I suspect that had to be a factor.

Since the real train rode so badly in real life, I would think ridership and just trying to make the thing work at all had a lot to do with that. Remember, they took a city bus, modified it, put it on the rails, and without the rubber tires of the bus suspension as a system, these rode terribly. Also, the reports that a 10 car train was underpowered and multiple stories of needing helper engines, that's another reason why probably dropped from 10 to 9. I got some of that info from a wikipedia GM Aerotrain page.

Here's a video from the museum.

edited the link to be a certain point in the video about the ride quality

https://youtu.be/euMsBNe0n1E?t=242

here ya go!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA3JkSKElzI

Walking in Gunrunner John's moccasins, I gathered add'l coaches for my Rock Island MTH Aerotrain. I wondered if the 1950s-style loco would be able pull 10 coaches, but a test run on my 15x19-foot L-shaped layout was a success.  The route is level with no grades; all curves and switches are Lionel tubular track O42. For realism, I added seated passenger figures to each coach. A short video is attached.

Mike M.    LCCA 12394

The MTH Aerotrain has been oft discussed here.  I love my Aerotrain but have mentioned before that these passenger cars are both heavy & pose a lot of rolling resistance.  Make sure all car axels are properly lubed when running.... and even that only just barely helps.   

Certainly correct about the lube.  For whatever reason, the Aerotrain coaches have more rolling resistance than you might imagine.  I'm tempted to remove most of the pickup rollers and use a one-wire tether between cars to distribute lighting power.  I think a fair amount of rolling resistance is added by the center track rollers.

@DCtransit posted:

here ya go!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA3JkSKElzI

Thank you!

@Mike H Mottler posted:

Walking in Gunrunner John's moccasins, I gathered add'l coaches for my Rock Island MTH Aerotrain. I wondered if the 1950s-style loco would be able pull 10 coaches, but a test run on my 15x19-foot L-shaped layout was a success.  The route is level with no grades; all curves and switches are Lionel tubular track O42. For realism, I added seated passenger figures to each coach. A short video is attached.

Mike M.    LCCA 12394

Thanks for sharing!